BYU vs. Central Michigan Notes & Quotes

BYU vs. Central Michigan Game Story

BYU vs. Central Michigan Box Score

BYU vs. Central Michigan Photo Gallery

Player Notes

Kyle Collinsworth recorded his eighth career triple-double finishing with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists to go with a block and a steal. He passed Alan Taylor for 23rd on BYU’s career scoring list. He moved into eighth in career rebounds and passed Marty Haws for fifth in career assists. Collinsworth passed Russell Larson and Brandon Davies in career offensive rebounds and tied teammate Nate Austin for second. Both trail Ken Roberts by 21 offensive rebounds for the top spot in BYU history.

His double-figure scoring game is the 74th of his career and his double-figure assist game is the 12th of his career. The double-double was his 26th, good for ninth at BYU passing Jay Cheesman.

The triple-double for Collinsworth is the eighth of his career furthering his NCAA career record. He is now two triple-doubles ahead of Shaquille O’Neal (LSU) and Michael Anderson (Drexel).

Chase Fischer passed Mark Heslop, Terrell Lyday and Nick Sanderson on the BYU career list with his four 3-pointers. Fischer is now 10th all-time in 3-point field goals made at BYU. It was his 24th game hitting three or more 3-pointers, which ties him with Mike Rose for the sixth most in BYU history.

Nick Emery had a career high in rebounds with seven. He added 12 points and four assists.

Nate Austin is now tied with Collinsworth for second all-time in career offensive rebounds.

Zac Seljaas set a career high in points, 3-pointers made and rebounds for the second-straight game. He improved on his previous career high of 18 points with 25 on 9 of 13 shooting and was 7 of 9 from beyond the arc. Seljaas also made his first three career assists against Central Michigan.

Kyle Davis is now 14 of 16 from the free-throw line in his last three games for an 87.5 clip after shooting 12 of 27 for 44.4 percent in his first seven games. He finished with 20 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Team Notes

Fischer, Emery, Collinsworth, Davis and Kaufusi started together for the fifth time this season. BYU is 3-2 with those starting five.

BYU had three players score 20 or more points for the first time since playing against Portland on Dec. 29, 2014. Seljaas, Fischer and Davis each scored 20 or more.

BYU committed the fewest turnovers of the season on Friday night and the fewest since last year’s game at Utah State on Dec. 2, 2014. The Cougars only turned the ball over six times. This season’s previous low was nine at Colorado last Saturday.

BYU completed its home nonconference schedule undefeated for the first time since 2012-13.

Quotes

BYU head coach Dave Rose

On the win:

"Every win is a good win, but some of them just feel a lot better. We were playing a team that was really difficult to guard. Doesn’t matter who is playing them. Very few teams that you'll play will shoot more 3-point shots than 2-point shots. They were true to that tonight. Over half their shots were threes. All of [their guys] were on it. We changed a few things at half time and got some of their non-shooters to do their 3-point shooting. Then we made some big baskets in transition. I thought for the most part it was pretty well balanced. Zac was terrific again tonight. It builds some consistency. Obviously, Kyle's triple-double it is amazing."

On Zac Seljaas: 

"He's naturally a three. He had a hard time breaking into the lineup, but when Jamal got hurt. We felt like the next guy would be Zac. He's got some extra reps playing the four and he's really taken advantage of the minutes he got in the game. Now we've got a guy who can play the three and the four. It was a great performance by Zac in a time when we really needed it. Ranks up there with some of the bests that I've seen."

On the upcoming tournament in Hawaii:

"My biggest concern is that we come home and start right in the league. I want us to really find consistence, seven, eight, nine guys who we know what we are gonna get from them every night, whether it is at home, on the road. We are 10 games into this. We are progressing to where we need to be, but we are not there yet. That needs to be important to us, that we get consistent play from our players."

Kyle Collinsworth

On having fun:

"Yeah, as long as we win, it's fun."

On Zac Seljaas:

"He's been this good since day one. Zac's been able to do this stuff. His confidence is there. It's not like he magically woke up a different basketball player. He's finding a rhythm and figuring things out, and it's paying off. It's cool to see growth in all of my teammates, especially the young guys. [Zac's] had the same attitude the whole time, whether he's playing a lot or not playing. That's why he's in the position he's in now."

"Zac is the most unselfish player. So even if he gets six in a row, he's not gonna be clapping or hands out. We [as a team] know who is hot, and Zac was hot so we were looking for him. Great thing about Zac is that if he's open, he'll shoot it, or if not, he'll make the extra pass." 

On if he knew he was getting close to another triple-double:

"When I just needed one rebound and one assist, the student section was yelling at me, pretty loud. That one was for them."

On CMU:

"They are a great shooting team, we knew that. The next great shooting team we play, we gotta do a better job, and keep guys in front and stay on shooters." 

On the 5 guard offense line-up:

"The hardest part about that is rebounding, obviously. The thing about that is just pace, you can space the floor so well with five guards and it is tough to guard. We just played with pace and spaced the floor and it worked out."

Zac Seljaas

On Kyle Collinsworth's final assist to give him an eighth career triple-double:

"I had no idea. I was wondering why he wasn't shooting the layup. But then he passed it out, so it all worked out."

On what clicked:

"I, with this team, found my confidence with it. They gave their confidence to me and it pushed me to be better, and it helped me on the court."

On if he was "asking for the ball" in the second half:

"No. I was just running through the plays. I ended getting open on some of them, and Kyle can find open players, and once I vocalized when I am open, he'll find me the ball, and so when everyone's open, he'll find them the ball." 

On shooting 3s:

"I have always been able [to shoot 3s]. Main thing growing up was shooting threes. We like the 3-ball [in my family]."

Central Michigan head coach Keno Davis

"I knew we would have trouble defending them with how talented they are and the great atmosphere we played in tonight. I thought in order to get the win, we might have to out shoot them. We are a strong team offensively, but defensively we didn't have any answer for them."

"We will be one of the nation's leaders in 3-point shooting this year. We are one of those teams that likes to play from the outside. It’s something pretty normal for us to shoot quite a few threes to stretch defenses."

"As we were building this year's schedule we talked about different opportunities to go play in great environments. We knew that playing BYU, who has arguably one of the best crowds in the nation, that we'd get a great crowd."

"BYU has the ability to have different guys lead them on any given night."

"Collinsworth is a special player. As we were scouting and evaluating BYU, we were thinking about different players who we would compare him to and those players all had something in common. They didn't just have great collegiate careers, but they had extended basketball careers after college. I am sure if he wants that opportunity or chooses to go that direction that there will be a lot of teams that would love to have him."